For the first time in his career Dwain Chambers has begun using a sports psychologist. The 34-year-old admitted that the court of arbitration for sport's ruling, allowing him to compete at the London Olympic this summer, left him feeling emotionally drained after nine years of turmoil since testing positive for performance-enhancing drugs in 2003.

"It's been a massive help at this stage," said Chambers. "I turned it down for a long time because I didn't think I needed it but, God, do I need it now, so I've taken it upon myself to go and do it since I've been back. It's something that is important to me. I can put on a tough exterior but internally there are things you need to deal with in order to get the best out of yourself.

"A lot of people said: 'You must be over the moon at the [Cas] decision'. Honestly, I was exhausted. This is a road that we've been travelling for nine years and I didn't know what emotions I'd be going through. It still hasn't sunk in yet. For something that has taken nine years to become reality, I can't expect it to be resolved in two weeks."

Indeed Chambers's first race since the Cas verdict was a struggle, posting a time of 10.52sec to finish in sixth place at the Ponce Grand Prix in Puerto Rico. Already, though, he feels the clouds are lifting. "My mind is a lot more at ease now. That was one of the many things that was making it difficult to perform. In order to perform you need to have a clear mind to concentrate on the job at hand. I had other things to deal with but now that I've got a free mind I can just concentrate on running and enjoying it. You saw me dancing on the start line [at the Great CityGames in Manchester on Sunday]. That's unusual for me. I'm not really a dancer."

Chambers, who in the past described himself as "running angry" when he first returned to the sport in 2006 following a two-year suspension, says he now needs to reconfigure what is motivating him to run. "I was running with a lot of weight on my shoulders before and that's been lifted, so now I've got to find something else to draw on, and that's what makes it difficult."

The Londoner lines up against Usain Bolt at the Golden Spike meeting in Ostrava on Friday evening and will hope that a star-studded field will help him to achieve the UK Athletics Olympic qualifying 10.18sec that is vital to secure selection for the Great Britain team. "No matter what happens, whenever you get a chance to race against Usain you can only get the best out of yourself. He's in 9.82sec form and he's probably going to get faster and faster so I've just got to do my best to keep close to him."

After years of competing in the athletics wilderness, forced to travel far afield to secure his races while the main circuit shunned him, how much of a difference will it now make running against Bolt and sprinters of his calibre? "A massive difference," says Chambers. "In order to beat the best you've got to compete against the best in the world and those opportunities weren't available to me. Now that they are, I've automatically got to get myself into a different mindset. I'm going to be going up against runners who are effectively sub-9.8 runners and I haven't been in that calibre for a long time.

"I have all the capabilities. I just need to get my mind sharper and my movements quicker. All these factors change. The intensity increases. The pressure increases and your expectations increase as well. I haven't had many chances to run against the fastest guys in the world. I have one now and I'm just looking forward to that."